updated 01:25 pm EDT, Tue September 13, 2011

Windows 8 less hardware dependant than Windows 7

During the opening keynote at the Build 2011 conference, Microsoft's President of Windows and Windows Live, Steven Sinofsky, revealed the minimum required hardware specs of the upcoming Windows 8 operating system. An early-generation Atom processor and 1GB of RAM such that the Lenovo S10 netbook possess is all that's needed to run the software, as it requires less system resources than Windows 7. A slide was shown that proved only about 281MB of RAM and 29 processes is what's needed.

In comparison, Windows 7 SP1 needed 404MB and 32 processes, while Windows 7 Preview Release required 540MB and 34 processes. In practice, it should lead to netbooks and low-end tablets that run as fast or faster than Windows 7 systems.

The OS is expected to complete in the spring of 2012 and to ship soon afterwards.